new little coil

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Dave S by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dschulth-at-shaw.ca>

Hello everyone....

This is my first posting here, but I have been reading this list for a few
months now.

I recently finished building a new coil, and took a couple of pics of my
makeshift setup to share with everyone! heres the link: 

http://www.85merk-dot-com/members/daves/tssm.jpg

Its powered by a 12/30 NST, a single static gap, and three wine bottle
capacitors.
the secondary is 1.5" x 12" tall with 30 gauge wire, the primary is 15
turns of 12 gauge solid wire.

so far my sparks have been a healthy 6-7".

It is weird though, this little coil only seem to run good with that tiny
solid cast iron ball on top (or nothing at all). As soon as I add a bigger
topload (copper toilet bowl float) my sparks almost completely vanish, even